Take Control of 1Password, Fourth Edition

Easily create and enter secure passwords on all your devices!

Wrangling your web passwords can be easy and secure, thanks to 1Password, the popular password manager from AgileBits. In this book, Joe Kissell brings years of real-world 1Password experience into play to explain not only how to create, edit, and enter web login data easily, but also how to autofill contact and credit card info when shopping online, audit your passwords and generate better ones, handle two-factor authentication (2FA), and sync and share passwords in various ways—including a hosted 1Password account (individual, family, or team), iCloud or Dropbox.

While reading Take Control of 1Password on my iPad I was furiously highlighting passages and following along with 1Password open on my Mac. [The book] showed me how some of my passwords were weak or duplicates. I immediately changed those passwords to unique and secure ones. —Elisa Pacelli, in her MyMac book review (2nd Edition).

The book focuses on 1Password 7 for Mac and Windows, but it also provides details and directions for the iOS and Android versions of 1Password. It briefly covers 1Password X, a chrome extension that brings 1Password to Chrome OS and Linux.

Master logins: In 1Password, a typical login contains a set of credentials used to sign in to a website. Find out how to create logins, sort them, search them, tag them, and more. You’ll also find help with editing logins—for example, changing a password or adding further details.

Understand password security: Get guidance on what makes for a good password, and read Joe’s important Password Dos and Don’ts. A special topic covers how to perform a security audit in order to improve poor passwords quickly.

Go beyond web logins: A primary point of 1Password is to speed up web logins, but 1Password can also store and autofill contact information (for more than one identity, even), along with credit card information. You’ll also find advice on storing passwords for password-protected files and encrypted disk images, plus ideas for keeping track of confidential files, software licenses, scans of important cards or documents, and more.

Share your passwords: Learn to store passwords in shared vaults within a family or team hosted account.

You’ll also discover the answers to key questions, including:

What are my options for licensing 1Password?

What are the differences between vaults in 1Password accounts and standalone vaults?

Should I keep using my web browser’s autofill feature?

What about iCloud Keychain? Should I use that too?

What can I do quickly to get better password security?

How can I find and update weak passwords I created long ago?

What should I do about security questions, like the name of my pet?

How can 1Password provide a time-based one-time password (TOTP)?

How do I use 1Password logins from utilities like LaunchBar?

What's New

What’s New in the Fourth Edition

In the more than one year since the last version of this book, AgileBits has been hard at work on 1Password—adding features, changing the user interface, and bringing various platforms more closely into alignment. In particular, version 7 for Windows is much different from what I described in the previous version of this book, but 1Password for macOS, iOS, and Android have also changed in numerous ways. In addition, AgileBits has made 1Password accounts the primary way to both license 1Password and sync data, and the service’s user interface has undergone quite a few changes.

As a result, this book required hundreds of changes—a massive rewrite that touched almost every page of the book. A full list of changes would run for many pages, but here are some of the biggest ones:

Updated the description of 1Password licensing options

Revised the “Explore the 1Password Components” topic to reflect 1Password’s new architecture on macOS and Windows

Expanded the description of 1Password X, which now lets 1Password work on platforms such as Chrome OS and Linux

Revised nearly every mention of the Windows version of 1Password to reflect its current features and interface, and removed all mentions of the old versions 4 and 6 for Windows

Updated the discussion of autosubmit to reflect 1Password’s new behavior starting in version 7.2

Expanded and updated the instructions for setting up and generating one-time passwords

Added a topic about Documents and Attachments to cover the various ways of storing files in 1Password

Revised the “Use Tags” topic to cover the new ways 1Password works with tags

Completely rewrote the “Perform a Password Security Audit” topic to reflect the major changes to 1Password’s Watchtower features

Thoroughly updated the chapter “Use 1Password on the Go” to reflect current reality—especially the portion about iOS, which now describes the new mechanism for autofill in iOS 12

Update Plans

October 31, 2018 — Version 4.0 of the book is fully up to date with the shipping versions of 1Password, but we’ll be keeping an eye on future developments to see when the next update is needed.

My favorite password manager has undergone some serious changes in the last year, and in my interview with Chuck Joiner on MacVoices I explain how I address those changes in the fourth edition of Take Control of 1Password.

1Password is new and improved in version 6, giving Joe and Chuck Joiner (of MacVoices) a perfect opportunity to tell you what’s new and improved not only in the app but also in Joe’s Second Edition of his book, which covers it. Best of all, you don’t need a password to watch the interview!

For anyone who is wondering, neither the Take Control Web site nor the eSellerate ecommerce site that we use for purchases were ever vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug, so you don’t need to worry about the security of your Take Control transactions or account information. There’s no reason to change your Take Control password either, although it’s always a good idea to do that if your current password is weak.

Take Control publisher Joe Kissell has written more than 60 books about technology, including many popular Take Control books. He also runs Interesting Thing of the Day and is a contributing editor of TidBITS and a senior contributor to Macworld.

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